Shower curtain or drape



SHOWER CURTAIN 0R DRAPE Filed Nov. 18, 1951 5 AALAIKIA llllllllllll IINVENTOR wt mz Patented July 24, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

The device, the subject of this invention is a shower curtain or material for a curtain for shower baths and/or drapes, especially in bathrooms and an object of this invention is to overcome some of the objections to ordinary curtains for showers and bathroom drapes.

Such curtains should be waterproofed. After a shower is taken and the curtain becomes wet, it has been found quite necessary or at least very desirable to allow the curtain to hang spread out until it becomes dried to a great extent and the reason for this is that if the curtain is folded, the parts of the curtain will stick together, sometimes ruining the curtain and if left to hang gathered together for a very great length of time, the curtain becomes moulded and ultimately rotted.

I believe that the reason for the destruction of shower curtains by the presence of water is due, in great part, to the inability of the water to leave the curtain. Flat surfaces of a shower curtain when wet adhere sufiiciently to prevent an easy discharge of water therefrom.

The object of my invention is then to so construct a shower curtain that the water can be readily discharged therefrom and to form the curtain so that they will actually be no flat surfaces that may adhere. All surfaces are roughened, or in other words, the curtain is divided up into a plurality of water directing channels as will hereinafter be described and this construction in itself is apparently sufiicient to overcome the objections found in the ordinary shower curtain.

The following is what I consider the best means of carrying out my invention and the accompanying drawing should be referred to for a complete understanding of the specification.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 shows a shower curtain arranged for use.

Fig. 2 is a view, partly in section, showing a mechanism for producing the shower curtain, and

Fig. 3 is a very much enlarged sectional view of the finished product.

Similar reference numerals indicate like parts in all the figures where they appear.

My shower curtain is formed of fabric which may be waterproofed in any of the desired ways, such as being impregnated with pyroxylin, a rubber product, a varnish, a nitrocellulose gum or an oil product, any of which are useful for the purpose. The impregnating material should, of course, make the curtain waterproof or at least water repellent and not necessarily wholly waterproof.

A sheet of treated material is passed between rollers such as are shown at 1 and 2 in Fig. 2. One of the rollers, such as the roller 1, may have engraved thereon a design as shown at 3 and the other roller, the roller 2, should be a soft roller such as will take the design impressed upon the roller 1. I may provide means such as the inlet and outlet pipes 4 and 5 for warming or even heating the roller 1 and I provide means such as hand wheels 6 and '7 operating upon movable trunnions 8 and supported by springs 9 for increasing or decreasing the pressure of the roller 1 upon the roller 2.

A sheet of material, such as previously referred to, is passed between the rollers and with suitable pressure and heat if desired, is discharged and the finished product is indicated at 10 in Fig. 1. It will be noted that comparing Fig. 3 with Fig. 1 and the rollers 1 and 2, that the finished product has been provided with a plurality of channels as suggested by the lines 11 in Fig. 1. The channels may be irregular, that is, not continuous from top to bottom. The eifect is somewhat similar to that commonly termed creping and the reason for this is to provide irregular hills and valleys which serve to prevent any possibility of the curtain folding with portions thereof in close contact for any considerable distance.

At the top of the curtain 10 I may provide a header 12 and this header will be provided with grommets 13 to receive the hooks 14 which supports the curtain upon the bar 15 and while the bar, the hooks, the grommets and even the header 12 is not new, I show them to indicate that it is necessary in following my invention that the grooves 11 be arranged approximately vertically, because only by this arrangement have I found the most desirable results can be obtained.

Of course it is not necessary to adhere to the pattern that I have shown, but it is desirable that the pattern contain vertically disposed or approximately vertically disposed channels. The channels may be somewhat oblique to the length of the curtain and the pattern may contain oblique and vertical channels. The channels need not be absolutely continuous but may be broken, from time to time, to a small extent, provided always that the objects of the invention are maintained.

The particular method of manufacturing my curtain may be varied, but I prefer the whole as shown and described.

Having carefully and fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to obtain is:

A shower curtain or drape formed of fabric and having a plurality of permanent irregularly arranged and broken channels extending approximately vertically of said curtain, to provide ready passages for the water flowing across said ourtain and equally permanent adjacent raised portions to prevent the portions of the curtain adhering one to the other.

NATHAN ROBERT CARE. 

